rain and mountain snow will reach from washington state to central california. >>> on cbs moneywatch it's do or die for snack maker hostess and the hiring outlook for the next crop of college graduates, ashley morrison is here in new york with more. good morning. >> reporter: this could be the day when hostess brand goes out of business. the maker of twinkies, wonder bread and other products say it may liquidate its business as early as today unless striking be bakers go back to work. 18,000 workers would lose their job. the company shut three plants earlier this week. hostess told cbs news some employees have returned network. it's not clear if it's enough to avoid the threatened shutdown. continued concerns about the fiscal cliff in the u.s. slowed down stocks in asia. hang seng was up a quarter of a percent while the nikkei had a big rally adding more than 2%. wall street stocks posted a third consecutive decline driven by weak retail forecasts and higher unemployment claims. the dow lost 28 points on thursday. nasdaq ended nine points lower. investors will be watching today's mee